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THE ALABAMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
IMONXQOMKRY 

Reprint No. ii 



The Ideal University 



BY 



JOEL CAMPBELL DuBOSE 



[From the TRANSACTIONS 1899-1903, Vol. IV] 



MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA 
1904 



/ * 



IV. THE IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
By Joel Campbell DuBose/ Birmingham. 

At the close of this the seventieth year since the opening of this 
University it would be profitable to recount the history of those 
whose names are registered as professors and matriculates. Even 
in the earliest history of her life this University was most fortun- 
ate in the congregation of mighty spirits about her. Dr. Henry 
Tutwiler in the chair of ancient languages and literature; the 
superb Henry W. Hilliard, lifting young manhood into the de- 
lights of English literature ; John F. Wallis, in chemistry, miner- 
alogy and geology ; Gurdon Saitonstall and Wm. \Y. Hudson in 
the departments of mathematics, natural philosophy and astron- 
omy ; and Rev. Alva Woods, the learned president, in the chair 
of metaphysics ; these were the first masters who gave the orig- 
inal impulses to the university life of the State of Alabama. 
While the president was a little late in arriving, he was ably rep- 
resented by Dr. Henry Tutwiler as the first acting president, 
whose gentle spirit and scholarly attainments fixed the impression 
of merited esteem and affectionate regard in the minds of the 
young men of the University. This list of great names might 
he much extended. Frederick A. P. Barnard, Rev. Basil Manly, 
Landon C. Garland, Richard T. .Brumby, Horace S. Pratt, 

'Joel Campbell DuBose. of Birmingham, was born December 17, i855- 
near Gaston, Sumter county, Ala., and is the son of Benj. Eusebius Du- 
Bose, a native of South Carolina, who removed to Sumter county, and wife 
Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac and Martha Horn, who lived m the 
same county. Mr. DuBose was educated at Mt. Sterling high school, 
Choctaw county, kept by S. S. Mellen, whence he matriculated at the 
University of Alabama, where he was graduated in the class of 1878 with 
the degree of A. B. ; and in 1880 he received the honorary degree of M. A. 
He was principal of a private academy at Birmingham for many years. 
At the general election of 1902. he was elected a representative from Jef- 
ferson county in the Alabama legislature as a Democrat. He is a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. On August 8, 1883, he 
married Alice Vivian, daughter of William T. and Eliza J. Horn, of Push- 
mataha, Ala. Mr. DuBose has published Sketches of Alabama History, 
(1900); "Aeschylus and The Seven against Thebes;" in the Methodist 
Reznezc, September-October, 1899; and a sketch of Alabama, in Pearson's 
Magazine, June, 1902. He was one of the founders of the Gulf States 
Historical Magazine, and is at present (1904) its editor and proprietor.— 
Editor. , ^ ^ 

(269) 



270 Alabama Historical Society. 

Michael Tuomey, John W. Mallet, Samuel AI. Stafford, John W. 
Pratt, and others, are names suggestive of all that is most de- 
sirable and far reaching in educational and moral attainments. 
Some who began teaching beyond the fifties still linger in the 
beloved halls inviting the young to highest ideals. 

And what brilliant lights illumine the scroll of the young ma- 
triculates. It is not strange, but wonderfully instructive, that so 
many members of the early classes became distinguished in civil, 
professional, mercantile and martial life. It would be invidious 
almost to cull the lists. Alexander B. Meek, the poet, orator and 
journalist; Clement C. Clay, Jr., of Confederate fame; Dr. John 
B. Read, inventor of the Parrott gun ; Oran M. Roberts, who 
rose to the governorship of Texas and left his impress in the 
statutes and literature of that great commonwealth. These and 
hundreds of other sons of this University have risen to proud suc- 
cess through the inspiration of environment, the consciousness 
that education is the implement of integrity and the guide of gen- 
tlemen. 

It would be a fitting tribute to Tuskaloosa to weave into the 
history of the University the influence of her people upon the 
student body. As the capital of the State, as the city on the hill 
at the head of navigation of a river leading from mountains to 
the Gulf of Mexico, as the center of social refinement and intel- 
lectual activities, Tuskaloosa was thronged with men and women 
who represented the best element of the old South. That her life 
should be an object lesson, giving the young sons of Alabama 
encouragement in studies and the polish of social intercourse, 
is but the developed outgrowth of that wisdom which determined 
the location of this University upon the present site. 

But a wider scope than this University is to involve my sub- 
ject. I shall speak to-day briefly upon "The Ideal University." 
No effort will be directed to discussion of the rise and magnitude 
of universities of the countries of Europe, wherein learning has 
for ages given prestige and veneration to established systems. 
Any one of the great universities of England, of Germany, of 
France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, or other country, would fur- 
nish history fraught with profound interest. It would call forth 
the history of education, and portray the national growth of the 
people in whose midst it nestles and whose institutions it has 



The Ideal University. — DiiBosc. 271 

brought into being and shaped for the happiness and political 
destiny of the nation. I use the term "political" in its nobler, 
broader sense regarding the public weal, making it applicable to 
whatever afifects citizenship, rather than restricting it to the sel- 
fish exclusiveness of suffrage and of office. Thoroughness and 
original research have heretofore been the distinction claimed 
for courses in European universities, but American institutions 
have imbibed the tense spirit of the older universities ; and of 
American universities I shall speak. 

The small colleges, a theme well discussed by Dr. Wm. R. 
Harper, of Chicago University, have done a great work in edu- 
cation. They have many things which give peculiar fitness for 
good results. Their smaller number of professors and students 
guarantees the benefits of closer, friendlier intimacy than can be 
expected in the greater universities ; but in the universities the 
restrictions of college give place to perfect freedom and the inde- 
pendence resulting conduces largely to the confirmation of lofty 
manhood. 

There has been great munificence in the endowments of Ameri- 
can universities. Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Chicago, Leland Stan- 
ford Jr., Johns Hopkins, and others, have felt the flow of large 
sympathies through rich endowments. The crude academic cur- 
riculum of Harvard in 1636 contrasted with the two hundred 
courses now offered at her shrine, indicates the mighty difference 
between her past and her present. It was Ezra Cornell who de- 
fined a university as a place where any man could go and learn 
about any subject that interested him. Clark University at Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts, is the only one in America where only post- 
graduate investigation is conducted. The undergraduate courses 
of the six or seven greatest American universities lead one to re- 
flect as did one of years gone by, that students should not wish 
to visit Europe except for the gratification of traveling. There 
can be no question as to opportunities offered, and there can be 
no doubt that the intellect finds a delightful freedom and glor- 
ious assurances in entering the portals of the American universi- 
ties. The cravings for knowledge to make^ society better, for 
intellectual and moral growth, for the power to interpret nature, 
to appreciate art, to relieve human wretchedness, to promote vir- 
tue, to enlarge wisdom, to foster integrity, to master the laws of 



272 Alabama Historical Society. 

health, to obliterate ignorance and bigotry, and make secure the 
pursuit of happiness and the possession of life and property; 
these longings find their best initial life and continuous support 
in the great universities. 

The characteristics of a university have been as changeable as 
the temperament of the people. Different environments, different 
im,pulses springing out of discoveries and developed resources, 
make demand for changing curricula ; and yet that education is 
always safest whose foundations have been slowly laid in broad 
and liberal culture. Dr. Daniel C. Gilman has well said that "the 
object of the university is to develop character, to make men. It 
misses its aim when it produces learned pedants, or simple arti- 
sans, or cunning sophists, or pretentious practitioners. The pur- 
port is to whet the appetitie, to exhibit methods, develop powers, 
strengthen judgment, and invigorate the intellectual and moral 
forces." 

Let us look at the conditions out of which the great American 
universities have been evolved. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and 
the University of Pennsylvania have enlarged gradually from 
foundations in former centuries. The later universities, Cornell, 
Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Tulane, Chicago, Leland Stanford 
Jr., the Universities of Texas and of California, have become 
giants of the first magnitude within a single generation. Cor- 
nell was established thirty-three years ago, Vanderbilt a little 
later, Chicago in 1889, and Johns Hopkins in 1876, — just twenty- 
five years ago. Cornell became rich in landed endowments, the 
gift of Ezra Cornell ; Vanderbilt by the munificence of Cornelius 
Vanderbilt ; Chicago by the friendly millions of John D. Rocker- 
feller ; Leland Stanford, Jr., by the melancholy drowning of the 
son from whom it derives its name, stands as a memorial to that 
son from Senator and Mrs. Stanford. It is estimated that its 
foundation and endowment fund exceeds twenty millions of dol- 
lars; and Johns Hopkins with $3,500,000 to its university de- 
partments and $3,500,000 to a hospital, marks the ascent of its 
founder through fortune "to the higher and more arduous temple 
of Charity." 

The rapid development and immense patronage of these later 
universities tell the power of money in securing professors and 
supplying the material equipment essential to studies and research. 



The Ideal University. — DiiBosc. 273 

They stand eminent in all the prestige of great responsibilities 
ably fulfilled. 

Another prominent cause of success is the wisdom of their gov- 
erning bodies in selecting presidents and professors. Cornell has 
had only two presidents within thirty-three years of its life, An- 
drew D. White and Charles G. Schurman; California has had 
two, Daniel C. Oilman and Benjamin Ide Wheeler; Vanderbilt 
has had two, Landon C. Garland and James H. Kirkland ; Chi- 
cago has had one, Wm. R. Harper; and Johns Hopkins one, 
Daniel C. Oilman who was called to it from the presidency of the 
University of California twenty-five years ago. The long con- 
tinued service of the presidents gave stability and confidence, in- 
vited patronage and endowments, and enabled the trustees to 
catch the spirit of the president, and thereby act in harmony for 
the common good. It brought the recognition of the superior 
qualification of university men to decide questions of international 
dispute, for representatives of Johns Hopkins, Cornell, the Uni- 
versities of California and Indiana have been made members of 
the commissions sent by the United States to Venezuela and the 
Philippines, when Great Britain and Venezuela were contesting 
boundaries, and when the victories of United States forces in 
the Philippines called for investigation into the condition of those 
far away islands. It has been seriously suggested that the proper 
tribunal to which to submit all international questions will be the 
law faculty of a great international university. 

It would be difficult to define the full power and utility of uni- 
versities. They have found expression in lifting the ideals of 
families, in adjusting commerce, in respect for law and the puri- 
fying of religious belief, and in the advancement of knowledge; 
in conservatism, protecting science and religion from the error of 
fanaticism, in refining the senses ; in distributing knowledge ; in 
making truth the object of search and proclaiming it to the world 
regardless of plaudits or reproaches ; these are among the high- 
est blessings of the university. To accomplish fully its work with 
man, the faculty should be selected with special reference to the 
ability to inspire. Better that a young man should never enter 
a university than that he should come under the sterilizing in- 
fluence of a time-serving professor. This being true, no professor 
should be allowed to remain in a university unless his pupils be- 



274 Alabama Historical Society. 

come saturated with the love of his subject, unless a reasonable 
number become specialists and advance beyond the known limits 
of the subject. It is not so much the quantity as it is the quality 
of the instruction that forms the character of the matriculates. It 
is not altogether the impartation of knowledge that makes the 
university education desirable. The preservation of the knowl- 
edge of the past and present, and saving it for uses, is another 
university essential. By this means the quickening of genius, the 
development of latent talent, and the formative elements of all 
progress are kept in force. Exceptional genius will rise above 
all difficulties, and through discovery and invention give a larger 
scope to human vision, and produce the means for conserving 
human energy so that the engines drive machinery and the occult 
laws of nature do his bidding ; and yet were it not that universi- 
ties register what has been acquired of knowledge, and project 
ideas to invite the world to continuous progress, there would be 
fewer successes to untutored genius. The very fact that so many 
things have been discovered after the philosophers have dreamed 
them, give evidence of the life that goes from universities to the 
lowliest classes. 

Literature and devotion to religion must be ever guarded. By 
religion is not meant adherence to creed, but a profound love 
.for the high spirituality in man, and the consciousness of truth 
beyond the expressed formulae of creeds. A university shovild 
gather about it the greatest and most active spirits of the age. 
Its impulses must give tone to manhood and womanhood, and it 
is criminal to retain in it unfit exemplars of intellectual, moral 
and spiritual forces. That is "The Ideal University" where all 
the influences conspire to quicken intellect, to protect health, to 
preserve and enlarge the treasures of the ages, to develop the high 
qualities of all the senses, to make man capable of discharging 
wisely all the duties that may come to him, and by contact with 
nature and by study of science and man, to use all for promoting 
the happiness of mankind. 

Would that this University of Alabama were this "ideal univer- 
sity." She has had a glorious history. She has felt the embar- 
rassments of her State-squandered endowments and the depres- 
sion of poverty. It may be said that her presidents were ideal 
leaders of youth. Her professors have ranked among the best. 



The Ideal University. — DuBose. 275 

With a beautiful campus in a spot as beautiful as can be found, 
with a nearby river and woodland backgrounds, with well- 
equipped laboratories, with a foundation worthy the regards of a 
great people, she should forge far ahead of her past and present. 
She has not met fully the public expectations. The claim that 
politics dominates her, whether true or false, has made her a 
by-word and reproach with many. To-day her faculty compare 
favorably with the masters in like positions in other institutions. 
But what you trustees are now called upon to do — select a presi- 
dent — is a duty which comes to you too often. Pardon me. but 
you have within the last twenty-five years had seven presidents 
here. A like history does not obtain in the universities that have 
outstripped this one in winning public approbation. Dr. Gilman 
has been president of Johns Hopkins for twenty-five years. Dr. 
Harper has been president of the University of Chicago since it 
was opened. The selection of a president with like fitness as 
these will make this university powerful in drawing endowments 
to her treasury, and inviting the assurance that the fortunes 
amassed in our midst will be left as legacies for her enlargement 
and for the enrichment of her courses of study. Men who spend 
their energies in amassing wealth recognize the power of money, 
and when retirement gives freedom from the cares of active busi- 
ness, their minds turn to the proper disposition after death of their 
fortunes. To place a fund in a strong institution, where young 
spirits will be trained for citizenship, is a temptation appealing 
alike to judgment and pride. If convinced that wise counsels 
will prevail in the management of the institution, and that the 
power of money will be used to the perpetual good of young man- 
hood and young womanhood, rich men tlirough their wills in pro- 
bate will reveal bequests to aid the progress of educational enter- 
prises. For this and other weighty reasons, you, gentlemen, 
ought to select a scholarly educator as the president of this uni- 
versity. He should be big-hearted, big brained, sympathetic, far 
seeing, masterful in thought and appearance, whose visit to any 
portion of the country, and whose presence in any body of dis- 
tmguished men, would give the impression that he was the peer 
of the princeliest in all the elements of greatness. Such a man 
will lift the ambition of students, and will govern with the 
strength and dignity of a master. The rule of right will natur- 



276 Alabama Historical Society. 

ally assume direction of affairs, public confidence will become an 
inspiration, and this University will be more lovingly enshrined 
in the affections and sympathies of her sons and daughters, her 
friends and benefactors. 

You have heretofore taken the wrong method to secure a presi- 
dent. You have announced that you would give a certain salary 
for him and your honorable board has been greeted by many ap- 
plicants. You should find the man who measures to the stature 
of the president of a great university, and then offer him as a 
salary $2,500 per annum and the use of the president's mansion 
as a home. If this sum does not secure him, make the offer of 
$3,500, and if this does not engage him, make the salary $5,000 
or even $10,000, and then cut off some of your departments of 
study, if you have not the money to give that much salary and 
keep up the departments. If you do not observe these sugges- 
tions, you will but repeat the history of the last twenty-five years ; 
you will have to be continually on the lookout for presidents, and 
as a consequence no endowments will come, unstable conditions 
will prevail, and many sons and daughters of Alabama will go 
to other States for university training. Find the right man, se- 
cure him regardless of a few thousand dollars, and the University 
of Alabama will flourish as never before in her history. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




